On Saturday we travelled to Balkello Community woodland carpark to start our Saturday 5 mile walk to Auchterhouse Hill Fort, Balkello Hill, Craigowl Hill and Balluderon Hill, pretty steep climbs in places but it was great to feel some sunshine warmth on your face. Sundays walk was from Newtyle to Kinpurney Hill and Observatory Tower, just about T shirt weather on the way up, very blustery up top, plenty sunny views all around.
Lesley in the Auchterhouse Hill Fort
Looking back to Auchterhouse Hill
Craigowl Hill in the distance
Lesley & Sitka on top of Balkello Hill at the Sydney Scroggie memorial
Sydney Scroggie memorial
Only those with a passion for the hills will understand why a blind, one-legged man would want to continue mountaineering after an accident that left him in such a debilitated state. But Syd Scroggie was not one who succumbed easily in the face of adversity, and his devotion for mountains, especially those of Scotland, was etched into his soul. The incident that deprived Scroggie of his sight and the lower part of his leg came during the Italian Campaign in the Second World War. He was a lieutenant in Lord Lovat's Scouts - a ski-mountaineering regiment for which, with his climbing skills, Scroggie was well suited, having participated before the war in first ascents of routes on Lochnagar and Ben Nevis. Among other places, the soldiers trained at the School of Mountain Warfare, then in existence in the Cairngorms. Scroggie, aged just 25, was involved in action against elite German mountain troops on the Gesso Ridge, in April 1945 - only weeks before the end of the war - when he stood on an anti-personnel mine that blew off his leg and blinded him. The last thing he remembered seeing was the mountains of Italy and the azure blue Italian skies. But rather than marking an end to his mountaineering, the accident began a remarkable and inspirational period which lasted the rest of his life. That Syd Scroggie's response to his devastating injuries was going to be different from what we might expect, came in a report from one of his fellow patients in the Naples hospital where he was treated after the accident. The patient recalled that he'd heard a lot of noise from an adjoining ward and went to investigate. What he found was Scroggie, surrounded by patients with whom he was laughing and joking. Already he was beginning to inspire those around him with his positive attitude to his physical loss. "I can do without my eyes," he reflected, not long after his accident, "but I can't do without my mountains."
A lonely tree
Rain heading our way
Dundee to Fife road & rail bridges
Trig point and TV mast
Sunday Kinpurney Hill Walk
Another tree
Kinpurney Tower is one of the most prominent landmarks in Angus. Built on the summit of Kinpurney Hill, above Newtyle, in 1774 by local landowner James McKenzie, it originally housed an observatory. Now an empty stone shell, it is the destination for this strenuous yet rewarding hike.
Sitka sizing up the tower
Photo opportunity
Lesley posing in the window :-)
Sitka and Lesley posing in the sunshine
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